Saturday, February 12, 2011

The modern-day fairytale is people making a living doing what they love. This applies to all industries from video games (MineCraft) to board games (Dominion) and on. Kingdom of Loathing is such a story, and you can hear the tale in An Adventurer is You!, a documentary about KoL.

Kingdom of Loathing is a free high-sarcasm low-graphics RPG you play online. It's riddled with pop culture references such as the Monster Squad's famed wolfman gnards, and a parade of painful puns. It's silly and pointless, and I for one love it. I hadn't played it in a year or two, though, and I really didn't know the origins story until I heard about the documentary (which you can buy on the KoL store).

This is one of those "bunch of guys in their basement coding" type stories, and I mean that in a positive sense. As in, they get to make a living coding a game in their basement. Part of why they get to is through the generosity of the masses. Some players donate to keep the servers running, some buy merchandise from the KoL store. It's that desire to support a venture that gives you something of value but does not require paybacks. Akin to the honor system that made "The Humble Bundle" work. It's similar to the concept behind Kickstarter, which is all the rage all of a sudden.

Anyway, it's a fun little documentary, but this kind of stuff really appeals to me, so I might be a little biased. I recommend you give Kingdom of Loathing a try, and that will basically tell you whether or not you want to check out the documentary. And honestly, even if you don't play Kingdom of Loathing, you need this shirt: